All posts tagged: Epic Uno

Earth Day 2023

April 22, 2023 Artists

As we think of springtime in the Northern Hemisphere and Earth Day, we gaze upon Epic Uno’s iconic Skull & Flower series with favor. He presents the visual with humor, making it accessible – even if there are many interpretations of his intentions.

We’ve selected this most recent work in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC to lead this year’s edition of Earth Day. What better way to speak about the perilous state of our planet than a flower with a skull at its center!

The cycle of life and death is endlessly reflected in the natural world. While this witty illustration may not have been intended to, we think he’s talking about the net negative effect we have had on the Earth’s environment.

Following is a recent selection of street artworks that address the climate, our role in protecting the natural world, and how frequently we fail. Here’s to our Mother Earth, with respect.

Epic Uno for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Winston Tseng’s current campaign taking over bus shelter’s ad spaces in NYC includes a critique of the toxic materials some fast food companies employ in their food delivery packaging. The tagline in this illustration reads: “Burger King packaging leaches toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

TheEnviromentExcuse.org – Not sure who funds WildAid, but posting anyway. Beware of corporate climate-washing, by the way. Sometimes they have ulterior motives, and PR firms propagate positive narratives for nefarious ends. Not saying that this is necessarily the case here, but one has to ask, “Where does the money come from to advertise initiatives like this?” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Welling Court Mural Project NYC – 2021

August 12, 2021 Artists

The Pandemic is still raging. Sorry. But New York is OK.

John Fekner. That’s right… Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meanwhile, artists are still getting up and we must continue living even if we have to take extra precautions and listen to the science and to those who care.

Dirty Bandits. That’s right too! Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This year’s Welling Court festival in Queens took place under the same health measures as last year. There wasn’t a big block party. The artists painted at their own pace and time sometimes only one alone at the compound – sometimes two at a time.

For the moment, the big gatherings and week-long shenanigans are gone due to Covid. Here are some selections of this year’s proposals and some from previous years that we missed either due to weather, traveling, or simply because those darn cars are always parked in front of the murals.

Crash & Joe Iurato. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kimyon 333. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Epic Uno & Col Wallnuts. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Too Fly. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jim Rizzi. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Souls NYC. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lexi Bella. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jeromy Velasco. 2019 Stonewall Commemoration. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JCorp. 2019 Stonewall Commemoration. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bella Phame. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jessie Novik. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vudu Child. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sinned & Ria. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tats Crew. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sash. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jeff Henriquez & Dirt Cobain. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pinky Weber & NYC Hooker. Welling Court Mural Project NYC 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skulls Reign On the Street and In Art Shows, Threatening and Humble Reminders

April 25, 2017 Artists

Skulls. We see them on the streets and recently many at art fairs.

The Memento Mori of the streets, these skulls reminding us that one day we all will be dead. Every single one. These are occasional, unplanned in pattern, surprising in appearance on the public stage perhaps.

Andrew Schoultz at Volta New York 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But in a culture that glorifies violence and guns in movies, television, video games, rock and roll t-shirts, backpacks… the sight of the skull is old school. Here on the streets there are one or two skulls, not like the thousands in an ossuary underground in the Paris Catacombes.

Stephen Wilson at Scope New York 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Possibly these skulls appear in artworks on the street as an omen; meant to shock, or frighten, induce dread. Certainly uniforms have carried logos and insignia with skulls- from Nazis to US Marines to Pirates of Penzance to Cypress Hill the images of skulls are more of a threat, a promissory note, an invocation of warrior status.

Mexicans, on the other hand, eat them as sugar cookies for celebrations set aside every autumn called Day of the Dead, where people make peace with the loss of love ones.

Guy Richards Smit at Spring Break Art Show, New York 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In the end, perhaps it is not the warlike associations. It may be the great leveling force of death, bringing every person to one level, that fascinates us. Regardless of where your body is buried, the rains will wash your bones into the oceans of time, and that is all you will be.

Maybe too it is healthy to keep these facts in mind despite all the drama, the tribulations, the wealth, the status, the suffering, the ignominy. Jim Morrison said no one here gets out alive, which is obvious, and funny as hell.

Here are some reminders of that fact on the street and elsewhere.

An unidentified artist in Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Scott Campbell at Scope New York 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Hirst at Art Central Art Fair 2017 – Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Epic Uno on the streets of Brooklyn, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An MSK Crew member on the streets of Brooklyn, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unidentified artist at Scope New York 2017 . (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Henry Hussey at Volta New York 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Niloufar Banisdr at Scope New York 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.05.17

March 5, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

We had a chance at Spring this week, and then it blew away. We’re back to the Antarctic for a few days.

NYC was inundated by art fairs as well, which was swell. Volta, Scope, Clio, Spring/Break – which was surprisingly not political or contentious, given its rather outsider status. Fair talk was glum, attendance was actually light at times, and most people where blaming you-know-who.

Perhaps that’s why Thursday’s opening of Trumpomania was packed and rather sweaty, although when you have 30 countries and 30 artists represented, you will probably fill the place. Even so, the energy was palpable, and guests freely “voiced their concerns”, as your high school guidance counselor might say, about a seemingly corrupt cabal that is practicing shock and awe on/upon the country daily.

One portly fellow at the show with a perspiring red face, beige cardigan, overcoat, and a backpack possibly containing an anvil, accosted us forcefully with champagne flute in hand to nearly yell for 10-12 minutes straight about Russians, cabinet heads that want to destroy their departments, Goldman Sachs, Exxon, the wall, book burning, impeachment, recusals, Jewish cemetery vandalism, teleprompter scripted calmness, possible alzheimer’s, and general viciousness. It was a Greatest Hits album minus the catchy hooks and clever phrasing – but with all the drums and guitar solos. (For you kids, an album was this flat wax disc that contained 9 songs you didn’t want and 1 song you did… oh never mind.) Just before he ignited into flames or triggered the heart attack which appeared to be imminent, we were mercifully interrupted and led away to look at OLEK’s pussy
art and Icy & Sot’s crocheted barbed wire fence piece.

Out on the streets of New York and elsewhere, artists are nearly yelling as well with their text based and figurative Street Art work. There appears to be no rest right now, and everyone is losing sleep or fighting or shaking their heads or “finding healthy strategies to achieve a sense balance” in a chaotic gritty abrasive beautiful city that somehow keeps racing forward no matter what the hell is going on.

City that never sleeps? We hear that.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Ann Lewis, Beast, BustArt, El Sol 25, Empty Boy, Epic Uno, Felipe Pantone, Icy & Sot, Jerk Face, King, Koralie Supakitch, Mikael Takacs, Nico Panda, OLEK, Sen2, Smells, Stinkfish, and UFO 907.

Top image: UFO907 . Smells (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist on the street. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sen2 at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mikael Takacs at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

King (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Empty Boy . Stinkfish in Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Stinkfish)

Felipe Pantone (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Welling Court 2016 Part II and AD HOC’s 10th Anniversary this Weekend

October 17, 2016 Artists

Long before Bushwick Open Studios and the Bushwick Collective there was Ad Hoc Gallery in a part of Brooklyn better known for bullet proof plexi-glass at the corner deli than being any kind of artists haven. Kool kids were actually filtering in to find cheap rents and space in the early 2000s and Garrison and Alison Buxton and a few other closely knit creatives, teachers, entrepreneurs, and activists created a gallery/community center that welcomed Street Artists and graffiti peeps.

Their gallery featured solo and group shows that included Shepard Fairey, Swoon, C215, Chris Stain, Know Hope, and many others over a five year period and Ad Hoc provided an entrance to the contemporary art world. Somehow they did it in a way that honored the roots of the culture, not simply cashing in on it. Smart and worldly, they also had open hearts to other people’s projects. We even had our inaugural BSA show and book launch there in 2008, donating all the money to Free Arts NYC and selling work from an impressive number of talented artists whose name you might recognize.

10 years later the actual gallery is long closed and they moved to Vermont to get more space to raise their daughter Halcyon, but the Buxtons still sell art, curate the occasional show, and have stayed seriously in the New York mix by hosting an annual street mural jam called Welling Court for the last half decade. True to their community roots, they keep the roster very wide and inclusive. This year the mural painting continued long after the actual event, so we recently went back to Queens to catch the ones we didn’t during this summers jam.

Coming up this weekend there is a big 10^th Anniversary party for Ad Hoc here in Brooklyn again, we thought we’d show you the murals we missed for the first collection of 2016 murals HERE. Hope to see you at this weekends Ad Hoc 10^th Anniversary event at 17 Frost.

Ad Hoc Art 10th Year Anniversary and Luna Park’s book launch Art Show will take place this Saturday, October 22nd at 17 Frost Gallery in Brooklyn. Click HERE for further details.

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